Toft Crochet projects.

So back in September I attended the WI Centenary Fair in Harrogate a very enjoyable day.

At this fair I purchased a copy of Edward's Menagerie, by a company called Toft. This company sells wool from its own alpaca herd and patterns to make with it including this lovely collection of animals they are all based on a basic body and leg shape so they have a family look about them which is adorable. Because I purchased my copy direct from them at the fair I got emailed 10 bonus patterns as well, which is brill as it was the dear and moose which caught my eye the most on the stand and their patterns are in the bonus pack.

The book is very clear in its instructions and there are also helpful youtube videos to help when you get stuck. I started my first project right away. The book is split in to three levels of difficulty but I feel reasonably confident with my crochet so my first project was from the second level of difficulty Douglas the Highland cow. Something I did realize from reading the instructions was that because of my left handedness I technically make everything inside out (this does explain my struggle with dragon bellies the other Christmas.) so when I finish each element I have to turn it the right way          around. Above are two legs the one on the left has been turned the one on the right hasn't, the left one has much neater lines. And here is all the Douglas elements. There is also detailed instructions in the making up of the animals as its also the way they are stuffed which give them their charm.

And this is the finished Douglas I'm really pleased with him and in the grand scheme of things didn't take me that long to make.

Another lovely thing about these patterns is that the book explains how you can vary the size of your hook and yarn thickness to create different sized animals. Douglas is classed as standard and worked in DK on a 3mm hook the next animal I tried out was Donna the reindeer she is worked in 4 ply with a 1.75mm hook. You can also do larger ones worked in Aran and chunky I will be trying this at some point.
I was really wanting to try out the deer pattern but the only 4 ply yarn I could find in the house was grey but I think she is still lovely. My other half said that since I was making it around Halloween time and she was grey it was a zombie reindeer. The antlers were a tad tricky, (thank you youtude vid) probably not helped by the smaller size and I wasn't able to turn them inside out but I'm still really pleased with how they came out.

Here you can see there is a difference in size.

My next project out of the book was not for myself. We heard news that a friend was having a baby so I set to making an animal for them. This time I choose Emma the bunny. I love the soft neutral tone she is in with her big floppy ears. Like the other two her facial features are sewn on in wool which I feel adds to her soft character.

And she has the cutest pom of a tail. Which I think I managed to sew on fairly centrally, (unlike a certain reindeer who didn't have her bottom photoed.)

So after the new bundle of joy arrived Emma got packed up to go join her new family. Here's Douglas and Donna waving her off.

While I'm on about Emma I'll just slip in a picture here of the card which went with her, I was rather pleased with it. Another one in my new card size which I'm really enjoying working with. The large flower motif from Stampin up Awesomely Artistic is stamped in pink and a complimenting die cut banner with white embossed sweet baby is put on the rest of the space is decorated with the cute bee from the Collage curios set in yellow.

So that's what I've managed so far out of my Edward's Menagerie book I do have another project on the go from it but you will have to wait awhile to see which one for now they are tucked up in my project bag.

Cards I've been making recently.

I've found some time to make a few cards to stock up again at the shop. Here they are.

This first set of four is a design I have made before and proves popular. Using a past Stampin up hostess set four seasons I layer up plain coloured card and patterned card I have created using the small motifs from the set and three colours. This is then topped off with the complimenting bird in pattern and a sentiment. I love selecting the different colour mixes.

  These next four are all Birthday cards as these are a big seller. Using the apothecary art stamp set and complimenting framlits these lovey shapes are made and layered on to a background of patterned paper. the sentiments are cut in to banner shapes using the banner punch on the end.

These next three are thank you cards another popular sentiment. Here I have stamped the wreath from the circle of spring stamp set and used the complimenting framelit to cut out the middle section, I've rounded the corners of this piece of white card and added a couple of flower stamps. I've placed this on to a plain coloured card background which has has the sentiment stamped on to it to be seen though the aperture. A bow in matching coloured card is added to finish the design.

  Here is just one card made using the lotus blossom stamp set. This is a clever layering stamp set which gives a depth and interest to the image. I do intend to make more cards using this set as it is very lovely and will work with lots of different sentiments this one says "to a great friend" which could be used for lots of different occasions.

The last set for now using a set purchased last year called no bones about it. This set includes several dinosaur shapes in solid and skeleton forms, is also includes some dinosaur sentiments and nice extras like footprints and stamps that can be used to add texture to designs.  Here I made three different designs one with a dinosaur in two layers wearing a party hat with a collection of banners at the top made out of patterned paper, stamped card to create a pattern and a sentiment.
Two of the cards have patterned backgrounds on to which a sentiment off set of white card and backed on to coloured is placed across it. A second piece of coloured card is overlapped on to the sentiment piece and placed on it are three white squares which have been stamped with the dinosaur heads.  The final ones in this set are on a new size of card for me a 4 by 4 inch square, I think I will like this size its not as small as my note card square and not as big as a normal card, it just fits these little monsters well thou for something to brighten someones day.

So there's a few cards I've been making recently check back soon to see some valentine's ones.

Pre Christmas Craft fairs.

I'm finally getting around to catching up on some blogging and I'm determined to do more this year.
Did a couple of stalls before Christmas the first was with the local WI group at the end of November. As I had commitments with clients in the shop I sent Mum to man the stall for the first half of the fair I didn't get chance to take a picture of the stall but a good one appeared here  on the village website. (scroll down past the church fair and my stall is the one with the little red stockings and green gingham cloth.) At this fair lavender bags and tatted bookmarks sold well as nice little gifts.
The other fair I did was the annual event at the windmill, this is always a nice event with really community spirit, unfortunately the weather was rather rainy and windy so turnout was abit low.
However Alex came to help me set up and took some lovely shots of the stall.

 General shot of the stall, this year I was in the second room with a couple of the regular stall holding ladies, we had a good laugh despite the weather.

 Lovely shot of the quirky birds, on their new wooded tree, they display really well on this.

 Shot including felt decorations and tatted bookmarks.

Last shot showing pincushions, friendship teas and lavender bags, which again were a good seller at this event.

I'm really great full to Alex for taking these pictures for me and making the stall and stock look so lovely he really has got a nack with a camera.  More of his pictures can be seen here.





Again this stall managed to make it on the village website I'm the girl in the antlers.
So that's the pre Christmas stalls for Hannah's craft cottage, looking forward to the fair we will be doing this year, more about that soon.

Must be getting closer to Christmas

It must be getting to that festive time of year again as I've just completed this new set of partridges.

In rich and sumptuous colours of felt these elegant birds are ready to adorn anyone's tree or festive display. As usual some have been done with hanging loops and other with loose ribbon ends which can be tied to your desired location.
I'm really pleased with this batch I think the mixture of tradition deep red, green and yellow matched with the pink, plum and coral gives a quaint and appealing quirkiness.

 As always they are completely hand stitched and are embellished with delicate free hand embroidery. They are lightly stuffed to give shape.

Each one has a character of is own and I look forward to them finding good homes this season, although many proud owners of my felt partridges tell me how they adorn their homes thought out the year not just at Christmas time.
So why not treat yourself or someone else, available for £9.50 each.

What have I been working on recently

In between some of my other craft projects I have been completing a crochet commission which is why it may appear that I haven't been crafting much recently.
A friend of my Grandma's wanted to make some blankets to send to local care home so she got busy knitting and ask me if I could crochet three blankets to add to the pile.

 The blankets I created were worked in granny squares each five rows deep and the blankets were made up to the size of 8 by 8. For this first blanket I worked in solid colour and simply mixed squares each with a grey border. they were arranged in diagonal lines.

For the next blanket worked in solid colour and varying mixed squares with no boarder. and arranged the squares in lines coming from each corner.

 The last of the three was made up in diagonal lines alternating solid colour and very mixed colour and pattern squares I really liked the effect this created and used up alot of scraps of wool.

After completing the three crochet blankets the friend asked if I could sew together and edge the knitted squares they had been creating. The bag contained 220 squares so I am turning them in to three blankets two 7 squares by 10 squares and one 8 squares by 10 squares. this first one had been created in diagonal lines and the next is being done in an oblong stripe pattern the last one will be more random as it uses up all that is left.











This has been a really fun and colourful commission and its nice to know that all the effort is helping people.

Be back soon with some more blogging about another new crochet project and all the Christmas crafting happening for the shop.  

New felt decoration "flown" in.

As my hand stitched felt partridges and matryoshka dolls have been well received I have decided to expand the range. I really enjoy making felt decorations and coming up with designs and colour combos.

 So here it is my latest design is a cute little bird house with bird. I'm rather pleased with this design. and feel it is quite on trend and quaint.  The front is done in a cream so the bird, bird hole and hand stitched climbing flowers can be seen. I've made the roof and base section the same colour as I think this works well and frames the other elements of the design.  The back section on each decoration is done in the same colour as the bird with roof and base pieces to match those on the front.
It has a hanging loop on top of thin white satin ribbon.

 A close up detail showing how the bird had an embroidered flower motif and is blanket stitched before being attached to the front of the bird house.

And a close up of some climbing flower embroidery on the front of the house. I do this free hand which helps make every decoration unique and adds a skilled touch you just don't get with mass produced decorations.

Like with the matryoshka dolls I have added a little ricrac and a button to give it abit of an on trend folk look and add interest to the front roof section.

 Here is a picture of the set of six I've made so far, I like working in sets like this as it is more time productive to cut all the pieces in one go and makes it easier to get a good spread of colour combinations.
These are now available in the shop and some will be appearing soon on Folsky for £5.99 each.

So what else in new in my crafty makings, The crochet quirky birds continue to fly off and find home with people who adore them so a few new ones have appeared to take their place and hang out on the tree with the others until someone comes to give them a home.

  Friendship teas also continue to be very popular and I suspect they will continue to do so with Christmas coming they make a lovely little gesture to pop in with a card and post to a friend you'd love a cup of tea with but they are too far away to do so easily. So iv'e made up this new set I'm really loving the colours and sentiments I've used on this batch.

I've also recently made a new batch of cards, as they are selling well in the shop and at events I attend, This is the third batch I've produced in this style but they always prove very popular here I have done six with mixed sentiments, such as Thank you, congratulations and for you.

And I've also got six that say Happy Birthday as this is always the most popular sort of card and with the mix of colours and patterns on the embossed cards there's something to suit everyone.
I'm hoping to be able to add more cards to the selection available in the shop soon, its just finding the time to sit down and make batches.
I'm also soon getting stuck in to me Christmas Crafting so check back soon to see how that is coming along.

Crafting for a party

Both myself and my Mum are celebrating big birthdays this year so we thought we would have a joint party with lots of family and friends. I'd thought it would be nice to do a blog post sharing all the little crafty bits I added to to the day to make it ours.

First off I had a collection of small jars (mostly herb and spice jars) which my sister had collected up to possibly use for her wedding last year. However she changed her mind and had these rather stunning tall vase arrangements which I made for her. These went much better with the overall theme and look of the day

So. I took the jars and dressed them with a mixture of things including ribbon like these two which had lace ribbon and a rather lovely green velvet one

These ones has a real rustic look with jute ribbon layered with lace or gingham and tied with paper covered wire.

 I was rather pleased with this set I have stamped them with stazeon ink which works on glass (it wont rub off but it will wash of thou so had to mind when I filled them) These also had bits of ribbon added.

and the last set I wrapped some washi tape around, its such versatile brilliant stuff.

 I then filled the jars with a mixture of flowers including September flower, achemilla, chrysanthemums , roses, poppy seed heads and pittosporum foliage to create an easy pretty county look

I popped a couple of jars on each of the tables

 Mixing up the different styles of jars.

I think they worked rather well since the tables were only small.

 To carry on the easy county theme I also dressed the hall using various bunting. I have two very pretty cardboard ones which went across two corners

 And some larger fabric ones across the end. The boys managed to sneak in to this photo they had just finished assembling the bbq and were popping it outside.

 I did also have lots of rain proof union jack bunting in the garden but I seem not to have taken a picture of it.

The other decoration in the hall consisted of this collection of pictures of myself and mum which I attached to the sliding doors. Our family and friends really enjoyed looking at these sharing memories and storied behind the pictures.

 The other bit of craftyness I worked in to the party which I was really pleased with was the cakes. We had purchased plainly decorated large cakes from costco and I add our own flourish to them. Here is mine decorated with icing buttons make with my lakeland button mold. Some of the buttons didn't come out as defined as they do when its used with chocolate but the colors are nice.

 I added my name using some printable bunting which I found on line this is super fun. I picked a chalkboard banner style and strung it between two skewers across the top corner.

 Each end had a wooden button on to carry on the theme here's a close up on the little wooden sewing machine.

 Mums had butterflies on which were made using these punch stamp things mum had picked up. They flutter across the corner of the cake.

 Mum also had some bunting made with a set of traditional shaped pendents which had pastel colors on and the end of her's had butterflies on to complete the theme.


I hope people liked seeing how I added some crafty touch to our party we all had a really good time.